Capt. Jon Rucker, the unmanned maritime systems program coach ( PMS 406 ) within the Program Executive Office for Littoral Combat Ships, told USNI News in a late interview that he ’ south had the auricle of the head of naval operations, the resource sponsors at the Pentagon, researchers and engineers at war centers and systems commands, and industry as he ’ sulfur pushed to develop unmanned nautical systems and integrate them into how the Navy operates .
Among the programs in the portfolio furthest along in exploitation is the Knifefish unmanned subaqueous vehicle, which will detect and classify buried mines and mine in high-clutter environments. That system wrapped up contractor trials in late August, and initial factory credence screen was completed last week, Rucker said. Sea acceptance trials, which are the final examination contractor-led tests, will take place at the end of October, and the Navy will follow that up with its own ball developmental examination and operational appraisal .
besides in the LCS mine countermeasures mission box is the Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle ( CUSV ), which will pull a minesweeper in its function as the unmanned Influence Sweep System ( UISS ). That trade is in the center of contractor testing in South Florida now, and Navy test will begin after the contractor testing wraps up. CUSV will besides be evaluated for a role in mine-hunting missions, which will require its own schedule of contractor- and Navy-led tests.
On the submarine war side of the portfolio, the Navy ’ s Large Displacement UUV ( LDUUV ) and Extra Large UUV ( XLUUV ) have both made late advance a well .
The Snakehead LDUUV completed a preliminary design inspection on Sept. 12 and is now in the detail invention phase. The broadcast is ramping up manning and aiming for a critical blueprint review in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2019, assuming the program is amply funded in the FY 2018 budget, Rucker said .
The Orca XLUUV is in reference selection and is on track to award an initial design shrink in the last workweek of September .
Prototypes and Experimentation
In addition to these programs of record, the Navy and Marine Corps have been testing as many unmanned vehicle prototypes as they can, hoping to see the artwork of the potential for unmanned systems taking on new deputation sets. many of these systems being tested are small airfoil and subaqueous vehicles that can be tested by the dozens at technical school demonstrations or by operating units .
The ADARO small unmanned coat vehicle, for example, is still in the initial development stage but is being tested by Naval Surface Warfare Center Combatant Craft in Norfolk. This vehicle, developed under the Small Business Innovation Research ( SBIR ) program, is about three feet long and could assist extra operators, explosive munition disposal technicians or Marines .
“ If you look at the special forces guys, they ’ re looking for something that they can plop in the urine cursorily to be able to go do reconnaissance or other communications-type things they want to do, ” Rucker said.
“ So this detail craft – fair like anything we put in the urine first, the ship’s company developing it improved the engines, improved the efficiency, got it to be a little more unassailable so if it hits a wave it flips over and rights itself – they improved all that. So they ’ re at a stage now where they have a few out there and they ’ re going through testing with the little clientele, with the particular forces guys ” to see if NSWC-CC would want to use its fund to continue with that product .
Rucker said a batch of the modest unmanned vehicles are used to extend the reach of a deputation through aiding in communications or reconnaissance. none have become programs of record yet, but PMS 406 is monitoring their growth and their engagement in events like the Ship-to-Shore Maneuver Exploration and Experimentation Advanced Naval Technology Exercise, which featured several small UUVs and USVs .
“ I would anticipate down the road there being a need ” for a fomite like that and the passage of at least one or two to a broadcast of read, but for now Rucker said the systems need to prove not only that they work but that their success is repeatable in an operational environment .
On the UUV side, Rucker said his office is working with the expeditionary Missions Program Office ( PMS 408 ) at Naval Sea Systems Command and the Battlespace Awareness and Information Operations Program Office ( PMW-120 ) at the Naval Space and Warfare Systems Command on a collection of humble and medium UUVs that can do sea feel, oceanography, mine countermeasures and more. For one small vehicle, the Iver, the Navy has 50 or 60 of the UUVs at its unmanned squadron ( UUVRON-1 ) in Keyport, Wash., for testing concepts of operations, developing tactics and prepare .
Future Manned-Unmanned Teaming
even as unman system prototypes are tested nowadays with the hopes of procuring those that may fill a capability gap, the Navy has a longer-term argue to continue testing these unman systems : several of its future embark classes will rely on unman systems, by design, to fulfill their missions. The littoral Combat Ship was designed around being a mothership for unmanned vehicles in several war mission areas. The future Surface Combatant will include a big manned combatant, a modest man combatant, and a family of unman surface vehicles. And the SSN ( X ) – the fire bomber planned to come after the Virginia class – will rely on UUVs to extend its achieve.
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“ Going forward, no UUV any time in the near future is going to replace a man arrangement. The capability of a submarine is barely not matched by one of these, ” Rucker said.
“ however, with submarines, the phone number we have isn ’ t what we want in terms of sum number, thus if you can augment the submarines and have a manned and unman chopine working in concert, or helping with some of the easier, more repetitive missions, you can unburden the submarine to do some of the other capabilities we need it to do. ”
He said the Navy international relations and security network ’ triiodothyronine waiting for the originate of SSN ( X ) to learn how to do this. The next increase of the Virginia class, the Block V design for which a request for proposals went out to industry last month, will ensure the submarine and the Snakehead UUV are compatible, to begin to pave the way for SSN ( X ) ’ south manned-unmanned team .
“ The SSN ( X ) of the future, as they go forward with that design, everything that they ’ rhenium looking at is taking unman into report, because going forward that ’ s something that a submarine will need to be able to do – not only its convention missions, but be able to act as a bombastic ocean interface to support unman vehicles, ” Rucker said. All the interfaces will be defined then that developers can build unman vehicles or payloads that are inherently compatible with the submarine – a procedure being started now with the Virginia-class/Snakehead consolidation .
On future Surface Combatant, Rucker said he ’ s working closely with the surface war directorate at the Pentagon ( OPNAV N96 ) to understand the timeline of the program, but he said wargames and workshops this year validated the necessitate for a family of unmanned open vessels to be included in the FSC concept. The FY 2019 budget cycle will likely yield more answers, he said, but he explained that two ongoing USV projects today will be integral in teaching PMS 406 what the unmanned patch will look like .
ONR nowadays controls the first Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel ( ACTUV ) vehicle, since renamed the Medium Displacement USV ( MDUSV ) and besides called Sea Hunter. The 2017 budget included fund to build a second vehicle. Rucker said ONR is testing the beginning vehicle in San Diego, buying down risk for the operational united states navy as they learn how to operate an unmanned coat craft while adhering to the rules outlined in the conventionality on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea ( normally known as COLREGS ), for example. additionally, a Pentagon-led campaign called Ghost Fleet is testing a larger USV with extra payloads that Rucker said he could not discuss. But both efforts would be significant, he said, because future Surface Combatant may likely end up with a family of two USVs to fill the unmanned helping – a smaller USV like to MDUSV, about 100 to 150 feet long, and a larger one akin to Ghost Fleet, at about 200 to 250 feet long with greater warhead capacity .
“ Those craft, from an survival, focal ratio, cargo capability, they ’ rhenium quite unlike, ” he said, adding that having both would give surface war officers capital flexibility in conducting missions at sea .
“ From these two, as they learn, they ’ re going to kind of gauge from the ACTUV, the Sea Hunter, and the Ghost Fleet, they ’ re going to take those – and in parallel be developing requirements that we learn from that – to then decide this is what we want to go buy, ” he said of the Future Surface Combatant attempt .
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